The Tycoon's Make-Believe Fiancée Page 0,2

all those years ago. His sister! Damn he couldn’t believe that she was still alive! He was thrilled of course, but the guilt that had been gnawing at him ever since he heard that she’d died wouldn’t give him peace, even though she looked happier than he’d ever thought possible.

He didn’t have time to deal with that guilt now though. He had things to do. First and foremost, get a more detailed background check on this Tamar guy. If his baby sister was married to him, Royston wanted to make sure that he was worthy of her. No way was he going to let her be hurt again!

After hanging up the phone with his security chief, he felt confident that he would have a more thorough report in a few hours from his team.

Happy. He chuckled at the way her sweet, blue eyes had looked up at him. She wanted him to be happy. Yes, that was the Wyndi he remembered. She’d always been so concerned about him, when she wasn’t trying to get into his business. Shaking his head at some of the ways she’d irritated him, he couldn’t believe what a beautiful woman she’d grown into.

Happy. Damn! Happy? Hell, if his baby sister wanted him to be happy, he’d damn well prove to her that he was happy.

Now he just had to find a fiancée. And he had to figure out how to be happy. How the hell did one become happy?

Chapter 2

Miranda’s fingers flew over the keyboard, panic and irritation slowing her down. She tried to take a few deep breaths, hoping that would still her shaking fingers. She had to get this right and she had to finish it fast. She glanced at the time once more and then regretted it. She had less than five minutes!

Pushing herself harder than she ever had before, she printed out the reports then went through them one more time. The clock told her it was five minutes past noon. The CEO of her company, a.k.a. “Head Jerk” had demanded these reports no later than noon. That didn’t mean twelve oh one. That meant twelve o’clock, on the dot.

And here it was, five minutes after twelve. Shoot!

She still spread the reports out on her desk and went through the numbers. The only thing worse than being late was giving the man inaccurate reports.

“Are they ready?” her boss asked, poking his head around the doorway. She saw the sweat on his forehead and upper lip and understood his concern. She was feeling more than a little panicky herself.

“Almost,” she replied, looking at the numbers on one report to ensure that they matched the other report. Perfect!

“Here!” she said, sliding them all together. “Ready for His Majesty.”

“Oh no! I’m not delivering these seven minutes late.” He moved into the room, grabbing the reports that someone else handed to him and sliding them into the right order among the multitude of reports that the other team members had produced. “Here,” he said, handing Miranda the whole stack. “You bring them to him.”

Miranda stared at the man, dumbfounded. “Why me?”

Her boss dumped all the reports on her desk and walked away. “Because he won’t bite your head off like he will mine,” he said and disappeared.

Miranda looked at the clock one more time, then gathered them all up, sliding her own reports into the correct place. When she was finished, she took another moment to make a copy of everything, then almost ran down the hallway.

“He’s out to lunch, right?” she called out to Laura, the Head Jerk’s administrative assistant.

Miranda caught Laura’s smile and breathed a sigh of relief. “Great!” she said, but she was already rushing past Laura’s desk so she didn’t catch the woman’s negative shake of her head before bursting into Head Jerk’s office.

She caught sight of the empty desk and her shoulders relaxed. The man was out to lunch so there was no way he would know that the report was late! Whew! What a bonus!

She put the report in the middle of his desk and started to turn away. She was just about to step back from his desk when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was a movement, just a slight one, but she froze.

Well, most of her froze. Her mind froze. Her feet froze. But her legs were in motion and it was hard to stop them since her mind wasn’t telling her legs to pull back. So when her legs kept